When the team of an educational institution strives for qualitative changes, they find opportunities to implement ideas. The history of the Pryluky Vocational Lyceum supports this idea!
Despite its extensive experience in training plumbers, the institution continues to explore new horizons in this profession, studying and implementing the best educational practices. The lyceum’s director, Anatolii Doroshenko, shared his recipe for success and also spoke about a project that came about through participation in EdUP.
How does the VET school develop the plumbing profession?
Pryluky Vocational Lyceum has been training plumbers for over 25 years. In order to train specialists with high quality, they develop international partnerships.
“More than 15 years ago, we cooperated with a German company that dealt with heating systems. At that time, our vocational instructors took training for several months at a plumbing company in Germany. In addition, we received training stands with samples of copper and polypropylene pipes. These materials are now common on construction sites. We are still using these stands today,” said the director of the school.
The lyceum is quite popular among applicants due to its high-quality practical facilities and the use of the best practices in the training of plumbers.
About the grant project
“Speaking of attracting a grant, we need to clarify the prerequisites. In August 2022, EdUP held a training on creating a business plan. It was supposed to reflect the institution’s development strategy for the next 3-5 years. By the way, our business plan won second place among the rest of the proposals. As a prize, the EdUP project provided a cash certificate for UAH 40 000. These funds were used to contribute to the tasks set out in the plan.
To implement the strategy, we need funding. Now, during the war, our special fund has meagre revenues, and it has become more difficult to raise funds for development projects. Immediately after drafting our business plans, we attended a grant writing training. Here we saw an opportunity to implement certain ideas that would develop the school,” Anatolii Doroshenko says.
During the grant writing training, the lyceum came up with a project to create a career guidance space for young people. The idea was to organise a location for communication between employers, graduates who are successfully working in a blue-collar profession, school students and their parents.
By visiting such a space and communicating with employers, young people will be able to make an informed choice of profession and, accordingly, work in their field of study after graduation. In addition, the new space will help to show young people the career opportunities in Pryluky, which will help graduates stay in the community and develop it.
“Not only should the VET school but also the employer talk to the future school graduate. The employer is an authority for the young person in matters of prospects and career trajectory. In addition, business will work more effectively with parents. They have a great influence on the choice of profession, especially when it comes to applicants after the 9th grade. There have been situations where a teenager wants to go into one profession, but their parents force them to enter another. Six months later, they come asking to transfer their child to a lyceum, but we cannot enrol them because we have already formed a group. I never tire of repeating to such parents that the choice of profession should take into account the interests and abilities of the child. And it is in the newly created space that these things should be worked out,” Anatolii Doroshenko explains.
The lyceum team submitted a project to create the space to the British Council. To do this, they filled out an application form, presented the project during an online meeting, but in the end, the commission did not select the Pryluky Vocational Lyceum project for funding.
“Will we look for a new donor and apply again? Of course we will! We have taken a break for a few weeks, but in May we will return to searching for a potential donor,” says the director.
On cooperation with business
Due to the war, local businesses are experiencing difficult times, which also affects their cooperation with educational institutions.
The Pryluky Vocational Lyceum cooperates with the Pozhmashyna industrial enterprise, Pryluky Garment Factory, and local cafes and restaurants. These businesses take students from the lyceum for internships and then invite graduates to work.
“One of the local companies often invites our plumbing students for internships or jobs. The company services apartment blocks. As the local heating, water supply and sewage networks are often worn out, the systems are replaced. Employers see that our apprentices are well trained and know modern plumbing technologies. Therefore, the demand for plumbers trained by the lyceum is constant,” Anatolii Doroshenko comments.
On expectations from EdUP
One of the results of the project to improve plumbing education, Anatolii Doroshenko says, is the establishment of communication among the participating VET schools.
“The trainings and education provided by the EdUP project were mostly offline. Over the years, I have gained many useful contacts and friends among colleagues from other vocational education institutions across the country. We can consult with each other, exchange opinions, or simply suggest how best to resolve a situation. It would have been harder to make so many contacts without the project,” Anatolii says.
When talking about the next stage of EdUP training, the director names many topics that would be useful for educators to study. One of them is adult retraining.
“The war has presented us with unprecedented, tragic challenges. In my opinion, we need to study the experience of countries that have survived the war and post-war reconstruction, and have returned participants in military events to civilian life. I would like to learn more about the retraining of adults, including former military personnel. Many people suffer injuries and psychological trauma during the war. We need to take all this into account and expand the inclusiveness of vocational education. Even the fact that before the war, a person was an administrative employee, and now they will have to retrain for a working profession to earn a living, is a trauma for some. The labour market is going through unprecedented changes, and the post-war reconstruction will only deepen them. The vocational education system needs to prepare for the challenges ahead,” Anatolii Doroshenko explains.
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The Public-Private Partnership to Improved Plumbing Education (EdUP) is a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, in partnership with Geberit Trading LLC, implemented by Swisscontact Foundation for Technical Cooperation and supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.